Give Wenger & Eduardo Lengthy Bans - Stan Collymore

The ex-England international believes diving should be heavily punished...

Football pundit Stan Collymore, a former striker for Liverpool, believes that any player found guilty of simulation should be heavily punished, with Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva's dive against Celtic worthy of an eight-game ban.

The 38-year-old also stated that Gunners manager Arsene Wenger's defiant defence of his Brazil-born Croatia international should not be tolerated and, according to Collymore, the Frenchman should be banned from the touchline for four games.

"Wenger said UEFA’s treatment of Eduardo is a “witch-hunt“ and vowed to protect his player," the thrice-capped England international wrote in his column for The Mirror. "But having seen the footage, I cannot believe Wenger can support Eduardo so strongly.

"Their threat of a two-game European ban for Eduardo is not enough and personally, I’d happily see all cheating players giving an eight-game ban."

He continued, "There is no point hitting a millionaire in the pocket by fining him so you have to start looking at other punishments as an effective deterrent. If a player can’t play for eight games he would think twice about diving because he would probably lose his place in the team.

"Managers like Wenger who also harbour and protect cheats should get a four-match touchline ban. It needs to be done to clean up the game and rid it of cheats," concluded Collymore.